Thread: Hihitahi Challenge 2016

The 2016 Hihitahi Challenge is only 2 weeks away now! We have over 30 registered competitors and still a few people who haven't confirmed with me. There are only 5 or so open spots remaining so if you are planning on coming along then you need to contact myself or Malcolm!

I'll expand the sponsors list as well. As per usual we have received some awesome support from a whole bunch of sponsors. Really great to see businesses happy to support our event.

DPT Machinists - DPT Machinists - DPT Machinists - Suppressors and barrel fluting.
Swazi Clothing - Outdoor Clothing NZ | Wet weather gear NZ | Swazi - NZ Outdoor Clothing.
HGD Designs - Home - Leather work, sheaths, slings etc.
Westlorne - Home| Canvas and Leather Goods and Upholstery - Canvas work, packs, webbing, pouches, etc.
Outdoor Brands Ltd - Wholesaler - they import brands including Remington and marlin among others.
Belmont Ammunition - Belmont Ammunition | Belmont Ammunition - Ammunition, Lapua, PMC.
@Bagheera - Not a business but an awesome competitor who wanted to contribute to the prize table.

There are about five more sponsors who we are still chasing and hope to be able to confirm in the next week or so - most of them are wholesalers and so are prepping to head to the SHOT show in the US! A busy time of year.

Just out of curiosity, watched 2014-15 videos of shoot and prizegiving looks a bit informal. Is it first in best dressed? It may just appear that way or possibly the prize winners didn't really want to be on film

Good work on getting suppliers to give prizes. I know hard that job is having recently gone cap in hand for prizes from businesses and the like.

@Reindeer have a read of the document i sent you a link to in that PM. That explains the prize giving for the 2016 event.

In previous years the prize giving has been in order of score. As your name has been read out (in order of your overall score) you come up to the table and choose what you want. We have received some comment or "constructive criticism" for this as only the people that do well get a chance at one of the really good prizes. Everyone has gotten a prize but not everyone gets a set of binoculars, or a suppressor, etc. I have also seen a few other events where the top prize goes to the top competitor who promptly sells the prize because they don't need it - i do not particularly like this practice but i do feel like we should reward performance over attendance. You can certainly see why several events draw their prizes (or at least the major ones). If we had a bigger competitor pool i would look at putting in prize categories such as most improved, best competitor under 25, best team with at least one member under 20, etc.

What we find key in approaching sponsors is trying to give back to them as well. We try and get back to them with how the event went, provide them photos, send them the video links, etc. With the 2016 Hihitahi Challenge we will be trying to be a bit more proactive in getting back to sponsors - each prize will have a little card with it that competitors can/shall write a little bit of feedback about the day and maybe a thank you to the sponsor, along with a few photos we will then get these comments back to our sponsors!

Gear requirements and recommendation for the Hihitahi Challenge:

This event is primarily aimed at hunters - in this spirit, attendees are encouraged to take with them what they normally would if they were going out hunting.

The minimum equipment required to be supplied and carried by each competitor is as follows:

• Suitable footwear for a working farm.
• Rain / wind proof jacket.
• Hearing protection for use when shooting.
• Pencil to record results on their individual score card.

We recommend each competitor carries the following with them as well:

• Lunch, snacks and hydration.
• Suitable firearm and ammunition for that firearm.
• Binoculars or similar observation equipment.
• Compass and map navigation equipment.
• Day pack.

About 5 entry spots still available. Message me (or get in touch) if you want to come along and haven't already registered!

More sponsors have come on board!

Beretta NZ / Steiner - Beretta New Zealand – Firearms, Group Hunting, Sporting Clays, Duck Shooting, Benelli, Zeiss, Burris, Decoys, Franchi, Air Rifles, Airguns, Skeet » - Steiner, Burris, Stoeger, Sako, Tikka.
Deadeye Dicks Shooting Supplies - Deadeye Dicks - Home - Nightforce, Sightron, and retail store

Still chasing a few more and I expect to confirm them in the next day or two! Very, very cool to see the amount of support we are getting from hunting/shooting businesses!

Still a few spots left open if you were wanting to come along - just get in touch!

Officially the entries are FULL!!

Let me tell you, the pressure is on now to run an awesome event! So much planning coming together for this over the last few days. Course is about half set now, targets are all out, navigation stands all set (bar one), flora and fauna sorted, first aid sorted - can print score cards and maps now. Finish off setting the course on Friday and she is all on for Saturday!

That's awesome Simon, really glad to see people are finally getting behind this great fun event.

What time is kick off?

Looking forward to catching up with everyone & a few new faces

@Philipo 9am safety briefing - tell @andyanimal31 to be on time as he is running a shooting stand! Forecast is for partly cloudy and light winds! Competitors will be pleased about the partly cloudy, freaking hot up there yesterday! We are planning extra water on the course and drinks/hamburgers for afterwards.

We are even looking at alternative prize giving locations with so many competitors!

Im keeping an eye on whats going on!

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

To be honest Andy, it is going to take the first competitors a while to get up to where you are (45minutes at the earliest and probably more like twice that!)

Thanks to the Gillice team, Tracy and others who made today such a great day. Was a fantastic day with great weather, bit bloody hot really, and great people.
Its a great day out and makes a change from just putting holes in paper. @HNTMAD Thanks for donating the prize of a Mercator and pouch, I was super wrapped to get this and its certainly the quality everyone raves about.

Cheers Paul aka fletch aka reindeer

Yes bang on Reindeer, was a bloody great day.

Was a good turn out on what ended up being a very long hot day in the sun, good on those that put in the effort to come & test their skills, I love this event as it has a bit of everything & is very well organised & run.

Many thanks to the Gillice families & all the other helpers, Tracey for letting us onto her little spot of "kiwi paradise" & to all the sponsors especially @DPT I look forward to using my new suppressor



PS- the trophy looks mint on my mantle piece

@Philipo Did you get max points for time? I Hope you did as you put a damn good effort in bloody near running past me and steve

Thanks for the comments guys, Yes was a great day - hot though! In fact every day I was on site was hot- made for a long few days out in the sun, heat and dust.

We had 33 competitors, including 6 females and 4 juniors, on the day which is an improvement over the previous two years. We once again had far too many prizes but this allowed the organising staff to also pick up a prize and we gave the last few away at the end. The end of day BBQ and drinks must have been good because there was little to nothing left afterwards.

I have yet to finish going through all the results and will post them along with the photos and video (eventually) once I have them collated.

Congratulations to the top individual competitors:
1st place @Philipo
2nd place @gamereaper
3rd place @Bagheera

Top team was won by a local husband and wife team (this is their third year of competition).

@Reindeer I don't think anyone meet the time window for score - the window we gave was simply too optimistic.